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Saturday, 21 January 2017

Two Nigerian police officers in the Bariga area of Lagos State, frustrated that a motorcyclist would not let them extort a bribe from him, instigated a mob to beat up their victim, leaving him comatose, SR found. ..

The horrific attack took place in the early hours of Tuesday, January 17th, 2017. After failing in their bid to extort the motorcyclist, the two plain-clothes officers rallied a mob by raising an alarm that their victim had attempted to kidnap a baby on his motorcycle. ..

The police officers then began beating the victim, Awalu Yenusa, and later stood aside and watched as a mob set upon the innocent man, pummeling him to a near-coma. Narrating his ordeal yesterday, Mr. Yenusa told Sahara Reporters that he was taking one of his regular passengers and her child to school when he saw a police officer disguised in his usual mufti wear and harassing bikers for bribes. ..

According to him, he was able to recognize the police officer from previous encounters when the officer had tried to extort him. He then advised his passengers to alight from the bike and to meet him at a point past the checkpoint mounted by the rogue officers. However, one of the police officers had already sighted him and moved to ambush him. In a bid to escape the officer, Mr. Yenusa said he sped off, with the child of the woman who had alighted still on his bike. ..

According to him, the child's mother cried out that her child was on the fleeing bike. The woman's yell alerted the public. The two police officers, one in mufti, the other in his uniform, then ran after him."The policemen hit me with an object on my head, and then more people gathered and began to beat me while the police held me," said Mr. Yenusa. He added, "That was all I knew until I opened my eyes in the hospital bed the next day." . "I know the [officer] in mufti very well. He had stopped me before, disguising himself as a passenger, but then announced to me that he was a police officer and ordered me to stop," said Mr. Yenusa. According to him, he paid N10, 000 on that occasion even though he had committed no offense.